Kwame Kilpatrick asks to be released before sentencing, 'has no funds with which to flee'

Mar. 18, 2013

News media swarms former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick while he waits for a car after he exits the U.S. Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit on Monday March 11, 2013 after the jury handed down a verdict in his public corruption trial. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is asking to be released from prison, with his mother offering to put her home up as collateral to ensure that he will return to court for his formal sentencing, according to a court filing today.

In addition, Kilpatrick also argues he’s too broke to flee, noting in court documents that he is using a court-appointed attorneys because he has proven himself indigent. And his bank accounts, retirement funds and other assets have been liquidated to pay off his restitution -- more than $180,000 to date -- owed from the text message scandal, records show.

“He has no funds with which to flee,” Kilpatrick’s attorney James Thomas argued in court documents.

Kilpatrick’s request to be released on bond comes one week after a federal jury convicted him on 24 of 30 counts for running a criminal enterprise through the mayor’s office to enrich himself, his family and friends. At the urging of the prosecution, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ordered Kilpatrick be locked up immediately pending formal sentencing, ruling that he had not proven he can be trusted to remain free.

Prosecutors had successfully argued that Kilpatrick previously had ignored several court orders from his state case in the text message scandal, hid and lied about his assets and violated the conditions of his parole even during trial, making him untrustworthy.

But Kilpatrick’s lawyer, James Thomas, argued in court documents today that “there is no logical reason to believe that” Kilpatrick will not show up. He noted that Kilpatrick’s mother, the former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, has offered to put her home up as collateral to ensure that he will return to court for his formal sentencing, the filing shows.

Thomas also argued in court documents that Federal Pretrial Services also recommended that Kilpatrick be released on bond, finding that “he was neither a risk of flight nor a danger to the community” and can be trusted to remain free on bond.

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“The defendant is incentivized to be with his family and make any and all necessary preparations for his incarceration,” Thomas argued. “To make an issue regarding Mr. Kilpatrick’s risk of flight is nonsensical … It is clear that Mr. Kilpatrick is a person who is very well recognized due to the extreme amount of publicity before, during and after a very lengthy trial.”

According to the court filing, out of the 842 people released on bond in 2012 in the Eastern District of Michigan, 24 persons either failed to appear, left the area or fled.

“This is a rate less than 3%,” Thomas argued, stressing his client would not fall into that category.

Kilpatrick was convicted on March 11 on 24 of 30 counts for engaging in a pattern of racketeering that lasted for years. He was convicted of racketeering, bribery, extortion, mail and wire fraud and tax charges. His longtime contractor friend and codefendant Bobby Ferguson was convicted on nine of 11 counts for similar crimes.

Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard Kilpatrick, was convicted on one of four counts and faces up to three years in prison for filing false taxes.

Kilpatrick and Ferguson each face up to 20 years in prison. They are being detained at a federal prison in Milan pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

Ferguson also was locked up after conviction, and remains detained pending sentencing.